Franz Schneider (resistance fighter)

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Franz Schneider (pseudonym Niggi ; born February 19, 1900 in Basel ) was a Swiss communist who u. a. works in the Red Orchestra resistance group for the Soviet military intelligence service Glawnoje Raswedyvatelnoje Uprawlenije (GRU).

Life

In 1920 he went to Belgium. From the beginning of 1922 he worked as a salesman in the Societé Naturelle company . In January 1925 he married Germaine Clais and they both moved to Switzerland. Both were recruited by Léon Nicole and started working for the Comintern . They were actively involved in the work of the Communist Party of Belgium and the Comintern and supported the escape of comrades at risk.

In 1929 Schneider was in contact with Henry Robinson . In the same year he was expelled from Belgium for political activities, but remained there illegally. He went to Zurich for a year and then returned to Belgium. In March 1931, the residence ban was lifted and he was able to live legally in Belgium again.

In 1936 Schneider and his wife were recruited by GRU resident Konstantin Lukitsch Jefremow . On instructions from Henry Robinson, Schneider went to Great Britain to sell the Unilever company .

From 1940 Schneider and his wife worked under the direction of Jefremow in the Red Chapel . In the spring of 1942 he handed over a radio to Auguste Sésée . After Johann Wenzel was arrested in July 1942, Schneider received a letter from his wife in which she admitted that she had cheated on him with Wenzel. Germaine fled to France. Schneider stayed in Belgium and in July 1942 asked his friend Ernest Bomerson to hide Jefremov in his house. However, Yefremov was arrested before he could reach the hiding place. After Eefremov was arrested, Schneider was interrogated but not arrested. In November 1942 Schneider learned that Yefremov was supposedly working for the Germans and wrote a message to Trepper. However, he went to the previously arranged meeting with Yefremov and was arrested in October 1942 and taken to the Gestapo prison at Fort Breendonk .

In April 1943 he was brought to Germany. In May 1945 he was freed from the Brandenburg prison by Soviet soldiers . In prison he was sick with a lung disease. The Unilever company he had previously worked for continued to pay him his salary until he recovered. In October 1945 Schneider went to Switzerland to see his wife and stayed with her until her death in November of the same year. In the spring of 1947 he lived in Anderlecht with Elisabeth Depelsner. In June he went to see her in Switzerland, in Neuchâtel ; they married on August 2, 1947.

In October 1948 Schneider lived in Zurich. He kept in touch with Maurice Aenis-Haenslin . Schneider later lived in Brussels until 1956, then in Switzerland.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Coppi : The Trepper Report on the “Red Chapel” (PDF; 7.4 MB) p. 446
personal data
SURNAME Schneider, Franz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Niggi (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss scouts for the GRU
DATE OF BIRTH 19th February 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH 20th century